BILLIARDS BLOG: November 2010

One of the things I love about living in Las Vegas is it seems like every weekend there's a pool tournament going on. This past weekend Mickey's held it's 6th annual 9 ball tournament. There was 36 players, and this being an open tournament some of the best players showed up. It was a race to 8, winner breaks and we played on the 9 foot Diamonds. The owner Shawn Gresser provided food for everyone, the service was great, and Shawn ran an excellent tournament. I started off with a buy, then my opponent didn't show for my next match. I'm thinking how lucky is this. After watching other people play I couldn't wait to get started. When I did start my match I won the first two games. I missed the 4 ball and watched my opponent run out. I was either kicking at shots or trying to play safe but never really got a good shot, and watched as my opponent win the next 8 games. As I started my next match on the loser side I found myself down 5 to 0. I remembered how much I hate 9 ball and started thinking about how much I missed bowling. I got in to a groove and won the next 4 games. Thinking I might be able to pull this off I had a brain fart and never won another game. I got into this tournament because I wanted to play some of the best, but at this rate how much torment can one person take. Anyway I had a great weekend and enjoyed watching some good pool. I need to play in some tournament more my speed and take baby steps before entering these open tournaments.
I wanted to take more pictures but got so involved in watching I didn't do what I intended to do .
The vegasbilliardbuzz has a picture of the first and second place winners.

The Greater Midwest Pool players Association held it's second annual Tournament at Bullshooters in Phoenix on Nov.4,5,6 and 7. Cecil Messer who owns and operates the GMPA ran an excellent event. The tournament started on Thursday and ended on Sunday evening. Non stop pool for four day's. This was my first time at Bull shooters and they made me feel at home.What a great pool hall.
Six of us left Las Vegas on Thursday and arrived at Bull shooters around 1:pm, as soon as we walked through the doors they were calling Jimmy Moore to play his match on the losers side. No one realized that Jimmy was suppose to play earlier. Anyway Jimmy started his match and was doing very well until after several hour he got tired and wore out. He was the one that drove us there and he was tired, hungry, and never had time to catch his breath. All of us eat and checked into are rooms to get ready for our 10:am matches the next day.
The match that Jimmy played in the day before was won by Freddie Boggs from Las Vegas. The guys that I went with were Jimmy Moore, Greg Kuhls, Ronnie Allen, Chris Akey, Dick Pickle and myself.
The GMPA had a lot of tournaments and Vegas won most of them. Freddie, Jimmy, Greg, Chris and Ronnie all placed in the money and took top honors in several brackets. The tournament was set up in two brackets the Gold, and Platinum. Chris started in the Gold and was playing so good that Cecil moved him up to the Platinum bracket the next day.
My favorite match was on the last day with the Lucasi 8 ball open division. Greg Kuhls took first place and Chris took 3rd and Ronnie 4th. Greg was in the hot seat and played the best I have ever seen him play. The match went hill hill and Greg broke. He ran down to the 8 and had a tough cut on the 8. The way he was playing this should not have been a problem, but his opponent came over to look at the shot just as he was about to shoot ( I think this is called sharking) and Greg missed the shot. His opponent was left with nothing to shoot at even with all 7 balls on the table. He decided to play safe. The 8 ball was on the rail by the first diamond from the pocket and the cue ball was behind several balls at the other end of the table. Greg called the corner pocket kicked at the eight and hit it prefect to win the match. I had the best time of my life hanging out with these guys and was so proud to be with a bunch of winners.
The vegas billiard buzz is sponsoring the LV OPEN at the Rum Runner on Nov. 13 and 14th and I think I'll go watch and enjoy myself. A lot of my friends are playing in this and I will enjoy watching them even though I wasn't able to get in.